Simple answer: no.
Unless you control the entirety of the routing hosts, then you cannot force them to alter their routing decisions. What ever they are evaluating (shortest path [most common], statically defined routes, or even fastest response) is controlled by their administrator and you can't force a change to that routing decision.
Something to consider: If I saw a node in my route had an unusually long processing time and/or packet loss rate, but that if I encrypted the same traffic before it got to that node (the VPN) the process was quicker... That'd have me worried that I'm going through a filter/firewall/IPS/something-that-is-reading-my-data. Now, #8 isn't that far away, so depending on where you are that could be an expected firewall-type device. But, in general, the transfer rate/response time shouldn't vary depending on the data payload. If it does, then something in the route is inspecting the payload and making some form of decision (different route, decreased QoS priority, decreased bandwidth availability, etc) based upon that content.
What type of connection are you using? Almost all domestic connections are rated as 10:1 [download:upload] speed ratio. – Tetsujin – 2017-04-25T18:05:49.720
Advertised as 2:1 but got 3:1 (more download than expected) – Vinz243 – 2017-04-25T21:29:45.913
:) Lot better than mine then; I get 200 down, 12 up, nominal. – Tetsujin – 2017-04-25T21:34:56.427